Manning is founder and president of the United States Council for Sports Chaplaincy and has been a chaplain at the 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. She also has a ministry through sports and the arts known as Ambassadorship, Inc.[3] She is also an author, speaker and contemporary gospel recording artist, who was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005.[4] She is currently studying for a Master of Divinity degree at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is one of the chaplains of the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA.[5]

She competed through the mid 1970s under the hyphenated name of Madeline Manning-Jackson.[6] She married John Jackson in 1969 but divorced him by 1970. Her son from that marriage, John Jackson III was the NCAA Triple Jump champion while competing at the University of Oklahoma. After briefly retiring from the sport, she returned running with anger and frustration, to the point that her coach had to train her separate from other athletes on her team and had to ask her to slow down.[7]